Nine Nights Owl Song

October 18th, the seventeenth year of Yong'an.

Outside Luoyang City, at Shili Pavilion.

Shili Pavilion is an old pavilion located on the southern official road of Luoyang. Due to its age, most of the red paint on the pavilion pillars has peeled off, revealing the gray-black wood grain underneath.

Several tiles on the roof of the pavilion were missing, and sunlight leaked through the gaps, casting irregular patches of light on the ground.

The pavilion was surrounded by withered grass, which rustled in the autumn wind, sounding like someone speaking in hushed tones.

When Ajiu arrived, it was a quarter to go before 5 pm.

She didn't come from the official road, but silently emerged from the woods behind the pavilion.

She first circled the Shili Pavilion three times to confirm that there were no ambushes, sentries, or traps around.

Then she chose a spot with her back against a pavilion pillar and a wide view, sat down, placed the knife across her lap, and began to wait.

She arrives early because she is never late.

During her eight years in the Dark Pavilion, she learned one thing—being on time is being late, and being early is being on time.

You never know if your goal will appear ahead of time; only those who prepare in advance will survive to the end.

At exactly 5:00 PM, a figure appeared on the official road.

The man came from the direction of Luoyang City, alone, without riding a horse, walking slowly.

He wore a moon-white robe with a dark ribbon tied around his waist, his hair was tied up with a jade hairpin, and he held a folding fan in his hand. He walked in a lazy manner, as if he were taking a stroll.

Ajiu watched as the person drew closer, her hand resting on the hilt of her knife.

The sixth prince, Xiao Yan.

She had seen his portrait in the files, but the portrait didn't look like the real person.

A portrait is inanimate, but a person is alive.

The living Xiao Yan was more...ordinary than she had imagined. Not in appearance—his looks were considered outstanding among the princes—but in temperament.

He looked like a rich young master with nothing to do, out for a stroll in the countryside, just to enjoy the scenery; nothing particularly special about the place.

Too ordinary.

It was so ordinary that Ajiu felt something was off.

Someone who can secretly control the Thousand Machine Tower cannot be so ordinary.

This "ordinariness" is a carefully designed disguise, just like her own "unremarkable" nature, a protective color that has been polished with countless hours and efforts.

Xiao Yan walked into the pavilion, sat down opposite Ajiu, placed the folding fan on the table, and then looked up at her.

His eyes were bright, a lazy brightness, as if he had just woken up and wasn't fully awake yet.

Those eyes lingered on Ah Jiu's face for a moment, then looked away, as if embarrassed to look any longer.

"Night Owl Girl?" he asked, his voice neither loud nor soft, carrying a hint of uncertainty.

"Um."

"I've heard so much about you." Xiao Yan smiled, his smile gentle and harmless.

"My name is Xiao Yan. Just call me Xiao Yan; there's no need to call me Your Highness."

Ajiu looked at him without saying a word.

Xiao Yan was not embarrassed. He took out a pot of wine and two cups from his sleeve, placed them on the table, and poured two cups of wine.

The aroma of wine filled the pavilion; it was a refreshing scent of bamboo leaf green liquor.

"I brought it from the city," he said.

"This place has good bamboo leaf green tea, you should try it."

He pushed a glass of wine in front of Ajiu, picked up another glass for himself, and took a sip.

Ah Jiu didn't touch that glass of wine.

Xiao Yan glanced at the untouched cup of wine, then at Ajiu, smiled, and offered no advice.

"Bai Yu should have already told you my identity," he said.

"The Thousand Machines Pavilion Master, the Sixth Prince Xiao Yan. Besides Bai Yu, you are the third person to know this secret."

"Who's the second one?" Ajiu asked.

"My mother," Xiao Yan said.

"She has passed away."

Ajiu didn't ask any more questions.

"I summoned you here because I want to make a deal with you." Xiao Yan put down his wine glass, the laziness on his face fading slightly, replaced by a serious expression.

"The Thousand Machines Pavilion needs a sword, a sword that is sharp enough, intelligent enough, and independent enough. You are the best choice. You work for the Thousand Machines Pavilion, and the Thousand Machines Pavilion will help you deal with the Dark Pavilion."

"Bai Yu has already told me all this," Ajiu said.

"If you invited me here just to repeat himself, then I don't have time to have tea with you."

Xiao Yan smiled, but this smile was different from his previous ones. His previous smiles were carefully calculated.

This time, the laughter was more genuine, carrying a hint of surprise and a touch of appreciation.

"Bai Yu said you're not easy to deal with, but I didn't believe him," he said.

"Now I believe it."

He took a map from his sleeve and spread it on the stone table in the pavilion.

The map was huge, almost covering the entire desktop when unfolded. It was densely covered with place names, routes, territories of influence, and troop deployments.

Ajiu immediately recognized several key place names—Luojing, Cangwu Mountain, Yanzhou, Yunzhou, Bingzhou, and Jiangnan.

"This is a map showing the current power distribution of the Great Liang." Xiao Yan's finger moved across the map.

"Red represents the areas controlled by the imperial court, black represents the sphere of influence of the Dark Pavilion, blue represents the sphere of influence of the 'Blood Hall' newly established after Chen Beixuan's defection, green represents the warlords of the three northern prefectures of Yanyun, and yellow represents the local powerful families of Jiangnan."

Ajiu looked at the map, her pupils slightly contracting.

The Dark Pavilion's sphere of influence was larger than she had imagined, covering almost half of the Great Liang.

Cangwu Mountain is the core, radiating outwards to seven or eight surrounding prefectures, with each prefecture having a branch and contact point of the Dark Pavilion.

Chen Beixuan's Blood Hall occupies three states in the Northwest. Although its territory is smaller than that of the Dark Pavilion, its power should not be underestimated.

Although the area controlled by the imperial court appears to be the largest on the map, in many places it is only nominally under control, with actual power in the hands of local tyrants and warlords.

"The imperial court is rotten to the core."

Xiao Yan's voice was so calm, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"The emperor is incompetent, the crown prince is useless, the second prince is ambitious, the fourth prince is corrupt and self-serving, and I, the sixth prince, am seen as a good-for-nothing by outsiders. The civil officials are corrupt, the military generals are arrogant, the people are suffering, and bandits are rampant. The reason why assassin organizations like the Dark Pavilion and the Blood Hall can grow so powerful is not because they are so strong, but because the court is too weak, so weak that it cannot even defend its own territory."

Ajiu looked at the map, then at Xiao Yan.

"Do you want to be emperor?" she asked.

Xiao Yan shook his head.

"I don't want to be emperor," he said.

"I want to change the emperor. Anyone is fine, but it can't be the current crown prince, nor can it be the second prince. One of them is stupid, and the other is wicked. If either of them becomes emperor, the Great Liang will perish."

"So you ran the Thousand Machine Tower, gathered intelligence, and cultivated your power, all just to change the emperor?"

"right."

"And then what?"

"After the change of emperor, the new emperor implemented new policies, rectified official corruption, weakened local powerful clans, and recovered lost territories in the north," Xiao Yan said.

"The Great Liang can still be saved, but the problem must be addressed at its root. The current court is like an old tree hollowed out by worms; simply pruning the branches won't do any good. We have to cut the tree down and replant it."

Ajiu remained silent for a moment.

"What does all this have to do with me?" she asked.

"I'm just an assassin. I'm good at killing, but I know nothing about governing a country."

"You don't need to know how to govern a country." Xiao Yan looked at her, and suddenly something sharp appeared in his lazy eyes, like a needle hidden in cotton.

"What you need to understand is this: the Dark Pavilion won't let you go, and neither will Chen Beixuan. No matter how strong you are, you can't defeat two assassin organizations alone. What you need isn't allies, but a powerful backer. A backer that is strong enough, stable enough, and allows you to kill with peace of mind."

"Are you the one behind it all?"

"I am," Xiao Yan said.

"I am not the strongest martial artist, but I am the most powerful prince. The Thousand Machine Pavilion's intelligence network covers the entire world, and every move of the Dark Pavilion is under my surveillance. If you work for me, I will protect you. If the Dark Pavilion wants to harm you, they will have to get past me first."

Ajiu looked into his eyes for a long time.

The sharpness in those eyes appeared for only a moment before disappearing beneath the languid facade. But she saw it: that fleeting sharpness was real, while this languid, gentle, and harmless prince was a facade.

Just like her.

On the surface, he is a cold-blooded killer, but underneath he is a lonely child whose heart has been broken by the world and who no longer trusts anyone.

"I have one condition," Ajiu said.

"you say."

"My knife is only for myself."

Ah Jiu's voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to pierce the air like a nail.

"I can do things for you, but you can't order me around. I can kill for you, but you can't control me. I can leave whenever I want. You can't stop me, you can't chase me, you can't take revenge on me."

Xiao Yan remained silent for a long time.

He picked up the wine glass on the table, drank the wine in it in one gulp, then put the glass down and looked at Ah Jiu.

"You are the most difficult person to negotiate with that I have ever met," he said.

"You are also the least princely prince I have ever met," Ajiu said.

Xiao Yan paused for a moment, then smiled.

This time, the laughter was neither a gentle, harmless laugh nor a genuine laugh, but a new kind of laugh—a laugh as if it had found its kind, carrying a touch of bitterness, a touch of relief, and something indescribable.

"Deal," he said, extending his hand.

Ah Jiu looked at the hand—fair, slender, with neatly trimmed nails and no calluses on the fingers, unlike the hand of a martial artist.

But she knew that the owner of this hand was unfathomable.

Her senses told her that this person was more complex than she had imagined.

Ajiu did not hold his hand.

She took out the agreement she had signed at Tingyuxuan from her sleeve, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Xiao Yan.

"Add the previous clause and sign it again."

Xiao Yan looked at the agreement, shook his head, took out a pen from his sleeve, and added a line to the paper—

"The Thousand Machines Tower shall not order, control, or retaliate against Night Owl in any form. Night Owl may terminate the cooperation at any time and is free to come and go." Then he signed his name and stamped his seal.

Ah Jiu folded the agreement and tucked it into her sleeve.

"What's the first task?" she asked.

Xiao Yan took a file from his sleeve and placed it on the table.

"It wasn't an assassination," he said.

"It's about saving lives."

A-Jiu raised her eyebrows slightly.

"Save people?" She repeated the two words as if it were the first time she had heard the word.

"The case involving the Jiangnan Textile Bureau has implicated some people," Xiao Yan said.

"One of them has evidence that the Second Prince, Xiao Jingyan, embezzled border military funds. This person is currently imprisoned in Luoyang, and the Second Prince's men are trying to silence him. I need you to bring him out alive."

Ajiu remained silent for a moment.

"I'm an assassin, not a savior," she said.

"Killing and saving are essentially the same," Xiao Yan said.

"Both involve infiltrating, approaching the target, completing the mission, and evacuating. The only difference is that killing is done while the target is alive, while rescuing is done before the target dies."

Ajiu looked at the dossier, then at Xiao Yan.

"You're the master of the Thousand Machines Pavilion; you have plenty of men under your command. Why are you looking for me?"

Xiao Yan looked at her, and the sharpness in his eyes flashed for a moment again.

"Because of this, we can't leave any trace," he said.

"When people from the Thousand Machines Pavilion go, they leave traces of the Thousand Machines Pavilion. When people from the Dark Pavilion go, they leave traces of the Dark Pavilion. Only when you go will you leave no trace. Because you are not a member of any organization, you are just Night Owl."

Ajiu picked up the file and stood up.

"Three days," she said.

"What?"

"I'll bring him out within three days."

Xiao Yan looked at her, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"Okay," he said.

"I'll be waiting for you here in three days."

Ajiu turned around and walked out of the pavilion.

She had walked a dozen steps when Xiao Yan's voice came from behind her:

"Night Owl"

She stopped, but didn't turn around.

"Your knife is indeed in your own hand," Xiao Yan said.

"But don't you think a person's hand gets tired from holding a knife for too long?"

Ajiu did not answer.

She walked into the woods and disappeared into the withered leaves and dappled shadows.

Xiao Yan sat in the pavilion, watching the disappearing figure, and remained silent for a long time.

He picked up the glass of wine that Ah Jiu hadn't touched and drank it himself.

The wine has gone cold, but the flavor is still there.

"Interesting," he said softly, his smile slowly deepening.

"That's so interesting."

He stood up, straightened his robes, picked up his folding fan, walked out of the pavilion, and slowly walked back to Luoyang City along the official road.

The setting sun cast a long, long shadow behind him, like a solitary traveler walking in the twilight.

The pavilion at Shili Pavilion has returned to silence.

Only the autumn wind and the rustling of withered grass could be heard.

Ajiu walked on the way back to the city, clutching the dossier in her hand, her steps neither fast nor slow.

Saving a person is much harder than killing one.

Killing someone only requires considering how to kill them. Saving someone requires considering how to find them, how to approach them, how to get them out of custody, how to ensure they don't die on the way, and how to safely hand them over to the contact. The variables double, and the risks double.

But she did not refuse.

It wasn't because Xiao Yan's conditions moved her, nor because she suddenly had the kindness to save people.

It was because she saw the location of the Marquis of Dingyuan's residence on that map.

Chongren Ward, east of Luoyang City.

Her home.

She had never been to that place, but she knew where it was.

During her eight years in the Dark Pavilion, she passed by the street corner of Chongrenfang countless times, saw the gate of the Marquis of Dingyuan's mansion from afar countless times, and paused at the gate for a moment before turning away countless times.

She never went inside.

It's not that I'm afraid, it's that I don't want to.

But now, Xiao Yan's map reminded her of that door again. The door she had seen so many times in her dreams, the door she could never open.

Ajiu quickened her pace.

As the sun set and twilight descended, the city gates of Luoyang slowly closed behind them, blocking out the last rays of daylight.

The owl enters the city.

The nights in Luoyang are never peaceful.